Throw Back Thursday – June 18/2015

For most of the years that we have offered rafting trips on the Red Deer we have set up our lunch on a side road that is located at the S-Bends.  Thus named because of the turns of the river here.  It is also known as Shoo Fly. It is moderately easy to get into from the main road.

This is the original road that was put in to supply the Rangers station that has since been removed and re-erected at the Sundre Museum.

The old road is no longer maintained and it is a bit of an adventure to drive the bus in and out of. You have to drive through the ditch of the new road to get down to it. This means driving the bus diagonally through the ditch so that the lengthy bus doesn’t hit bottom. You then follow the overgrown path to an opening where we set up lunch for our guests.

In amongst the turns of the river there is a set of rapids. It is technical in that the large waves are trying to push you to the outside of the corner onto the abrupt rock wall face made of shale. As you travel downstream each large wave you hit slows you down a bit and threatens to hold you in the trough between the waves. If you go through too slowly you are at risk of getting stopped, held and turned sideways and flipped by the troughs – holes in river speak.

As the river flow rate varies the size of these holes changes and can pose more of a threat. The size of the holes can become larger and smaller as the river increases in volume.

The challenge of this rapid is that you want enough speed to power through the holes. But not too much that the raft is forced into the wall of rock on the corner.

While we have lunched here 1000’s of times we have heard the yells and screams of people enjoying the big rolling waves. Sometimes the yells would end abruptly and then yelling of a different sort would be heard.

Over the years we saw plenty of people that ended up swimming through this rapid. The guides would suddenly switch into river rescue mode and go running off to the river with their safety equipment at the ready. Upside down rafts and swimmers caused concern as well as provided several laughs  in our guests. It also created a rising level of excitement at the lunch site.

One year the river was at a very particular volume that caused large standing waves and deep holes that would stop the rafts. Raft after raft went through and flipped. It was hard for the guides to have lunch because of the continuous rescuing of all the swimmers of that rapid.

While our guests were having lunch, listening and watching the goings on they were getting quieter and quieter. They were eating slowly as if trying to delay the impending doom.

When the lunch was over we helped people get suited up and ready for their turn. We double checked everyone’s lifejacket to many peoples horror and led them off like lambs to the slaughter.

After watching all the rafts crash and burn going through this rapid the guides were ready and knew what to expect. They sure looked good taking on the waves being totally prepared for the conditions. The more experienced guides went first and ran the rapid getting an incredible ride and rush. They then set up safety positions down stream of the rapid.

With the successful running of the rapid there was a huge release of tension and admiration for the guides. It sure made the company look good.

There is nearly always a chicken route on the edge of rapids that you can run through. I don’t know how many of the guides took it.

Throw Back Thursday - June 11/2015

The wild horses stir up lots of controversy here in Alberta. Some say the horses should be allowed to roam free and others claim they are not part of the natural ecosystem and should be eliminated.

Millions of years ago wild horses populated this area until their eventual extinction.

In the last hundred years domesticated horses have been released into the wild. There are now several generations on the eastern slopes of the Rockies. Several herds live in the Upper Red Deer River area. On nearly every trip up to our rafting launch point we see wild horses.

Because of the logging in the area you can now see horses as there are fewer trees to shelter them. They have been forced to spread out to find shelter. With identifying marks on individual horses you can differentiate many different herds.

Once the herds were mainly located in the western part of the valley. Now there are so many that they are carving out territory as far east as the border of Crown land and private property.

In the last few years there has been well organized attempts to bring the herds under some control in numbers. Over all the 35 years I have been rafting in the valley I have seen the numbers increase and they are becoming more visible.

People have tried to catch the wild horses for many years. Some of the old outfitters found them useful as pack animals if they caught them young. Now there are groups such as WHOAS, CWH and Help the Wildies that are  adopting a few of the horses caught. Other horses are auctioned off to individuals where they live the remainder of their life under some care and comfort. The rest are sent for slaughter.

The method to catch them has changed over time. Now they use metal corrals and use salt or hay as a lure to entice the horses in. Once inside a trip wire closes a heavy door to trap them. This method decreases the stress of capture and is less likely to jeopardize the life of the horses as they struggle for freedom.

Another method was used by poachers before the number of horses or there existance became an issue. The old style that I saw was made of many logs strapped between convenient standing trees. Two long fences converged forming a V with a very small holding pen at the end. The animals would be chased in the open end of the V and driven  through the trees down to the pen.

As the fences converged the colts or any desirable horse could be separated and forced into the pen. This would have been a brutish experience for the men as well as a nasty and brutish experience for the horses. The horses would have been running into trees and hitting the fences as they tried to find an escape. Once caught, the men had to get the newly captured horses from that remote location through the bush back to the waiting trailers. This made me think it would be mainly colts that were caught.

I don’t know if this trap is still standing. It has been many years since I was there and I doubt if I could find the place now. It is a relief to hear of the more humane corrals for trapping the horses that are used now.

Off and Rafting

The rafting season has started! We are off and rafting for the 2015 season with several guide training sessions and a couple rafting tours under our safety belt.

The guides are surprised by some of the new rapids that have appeared over the winter due to the ice movement. They are coming back with tales of side surfs and rapids where there haven’t been any before. The first trips are always exciting as you learn about the new river and the hazards that have accumulated over the winter months.

Our most recent trips have been corporate trips. These are always a wide mixture of people with usually only work in common. Opposed to this we have groups such as stags, clubs, church groups, families and friends getting together. All these have a different social structure that already exists.

This group of oilfield workers have been out rafting before several times over the years. There were several people that we recognized from previous trips along with a few new faces. They seemed like a cohesive group that enjoyed each others company. It was interesting that I couldn’t pick out the bosses in the team.

For team building rafting offers an event that makes people truly depend on others to succeed.

Rafting encourages trust and cooperation in a group. This stimulates bonding while making people open up and feel comfortable. White water rafting is a real and exciting team building activity with real consequences. It’s physically and mentally challenging and best of all, loads of fun.

By experiencing first hand the beauty of a river through white water rafting people will become more appreciative of environmental issues. This may foster a strong desire to protect and preserve an area because of their positive outdoor experience.

Time away from the office should be well spent and should take place without exhausting the participants. For this reason the proximity of the venue is extremely important. It should be just far enough from the office to free people up to think creatively but near enough that travel time is minimal. With Otter Rafting being in Sundre we are conveniently located to Alberta’s major cities. This is a good meeting point for businesses with offices in more than one city.

With our summer being three short months now is the time for a get together for your team at the office. We can offer you both mid-week and week end trips that can be made to accommodate your needs for both a half or a full day trip.